cover image THE HOLISTIC HAGGADAH: How Will You Be Different This Passover Night?

THE HOLISTIC HAGGADAH: How Will You Be Different This Passover Night?

Michael L. Kagan, . . Urim Publications, $24.95 (239pp) ISBN 978-965-7108-49-9

"How is this night different from all other nights?" is the traditional Passover question. But Kagan (who describes himself as an "ortho-practicing, but unorthodox, Jew") wants seder participants to look beyond the obvious and ask themselves a different question: "How will this night change me?" Using the Exodus story as an allegory of an individual's spiritual slavery and redemption, Kagan advocates a holistic approach to Judaism that merges the worlds of action, emotion, intellect and spirit. Readers are asked to reflect upon what is keeping them enslaved in their "inner Mitzraim" (Egypt). Kagan spiritualizes the various elements of Passover observance; burning the hametz (leavened bread), for example, symbolizes a willingness to let go of attachments and anything that puffs us up. (Mar.)